Study on substitution of faba bean for feed in fish

In recent years, seeking new feed materials has become increasingly important because of the rising cost of fish meal in feed. Faba bean has good value of high protein content and energy values compared with wheat and other grains, and contains rich vitamin and mineral elements. Therefore, faba bean has a great potential to replace the wheat and fish meal for raw materials of fish feed. Previous studies show that adding a partial percentage of faba bean into the feed can promote the growth of the European seabass, change muscle quality of grass carp, allogynogenetic silver crucian carp,channel catfish and so on, and affect physiological and biochemical characteristics of faba bean-fed fish. However, antinutritional factors of faba bean, including polyphenols, tannins and enzyme inhibitors and others, could hinder the physiological metabolism of faba bean -fed fish. Based on previous studies, some methods including adding different proportions of faba bean in the diets of fish according to different fish or eliminating the anti-nutritional factors of faba bean and other means might enhance the application efficiency of faba bean in fish feed.